Lando Norris does not share Max Verstappen’s dislike of the new Formula 1 rules – and says his rival is welcome to walk away from the series if he is not happy with the cars.

Verstappen spoke out against F1’s 2026 regulations during testing in Bahrain on Thursday – stating that they were ‘anti-racing’ and that F1 now felt like ‘Formula E on steroids.’

He also gave a ‘let’s see’ response on whether he would stick around for much longer in F1 if his enjoyment wained.

Speaking in response to the scenario of Verstappen’s future potentially hanging in the balance over the current rules, Norris said he did not share his rival’s opinion nor agree with his criticisms.

Speaking about the cars Norris said: “A lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, if he wants to retire, he can retire.”

Norris accepted that the new generation of cars were very different to the previous rules set – and were certainly not perfect.

But he reckoned that drivers had to see the big picture, and the challenge of making them quick still remained.

“I don't expect Max is going to go out and not give a shit - he's going to try and win,” said Norris.

“It certainly doesn't feel as quick as the past few years, and it certainly doesn't handle as perfectly.

“But I'm sure if he came into this and this was the F1 car he started driving, then he probably would say it's amazing.

“Comparing to the older cars, it doesn't feel as pretty and beautiful to drive, but it's still pretty good. And it's still early days, it's early days of a regulation that's meant to be a good amount slower.

“If we fast-forward to the end of this year and look into next year already, we're going to be going a lot quicker by then.”

Norris said that drivers were paid a lot of money to make the most of the cars that they are given – and if they did not like them then they were not forced to stick around.

“Formula 1 changes all the time; sometimes it's a bit better to drive, sometimes it's not as good to drive,” he said.

“But we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive, so you can't really complain at the end of the day.

“Any driver can go and find something else to do - it's not like he has to be here, or any driver has to be here. It's a challenge, but it's a good, fun challenge for the engineers, for the drivers. It's different.

“You have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently, but I still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun. So no, nothing to complain about.”

And rather than being unhappy about certain aspects of the regulations, Norris reckoned that some of the characteristics of the 2026 cars were things he relished.

“It's definitely the most different of my Formula 1 cars that I've driven,” he added.

“They've kind of been all similar changes over the years, and all have driven in a fairly similar way.

"This is certainly the one which is the most different - just a lot less grip, a much trickier car to drive, but more power  - and that's not a good thing necessarily because it makes it also harder to drive.

“But more fun: you feel the acceleration difference, you feel the speed and all those things.”